Test of Endurance: Experiencing the 61st 12 Hours of Sebring

If you follow any kind of racing, you know of motorsport’s premier venues: Monaco, Le Mans, Indianapolis, Daytona, Spa-Francorchamps, the Nürburgring, and others. Each headlining event has its own unique charm as well as a certain amount of prestige. Sebring, home of the famed 12-hour grand prix, has loads of charm – perhaps because it’s the last place you’d expect to host an international endurance race.

I was invited as a guest of Audi, which has won the race 11 times in the last 13 years. Sebring, Fla. is located in the southern state’s heartland, and besides the race track and local lakes, there’s not much there. This could be why fans from all over central Florida have been flocking to Sebring since the first 12-hour race in 1952. To many, the race is secondary to the party that surrounds it.Once we arrived at the track, one journalist remarked that it felt more like the county fair than a world-class racing venue, with vendors peddling the same deep-fried foods and jumbo-size hot dogs you’d find on a carnival midway. But the track’s rich history was apparent as soon as you laid eyes on the building along pit road, which listed the names of legendary drivers who won there. Racing greats like Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, A.J. Foyt, and Mario Andretti each had a spot on the building. On the other side, the winning manufacturers were listed, with a blank spot open for the first-place finisher of this year’s race.

Sebring’s historic significance begins to fade as you walk through the so-called “party zone,” which hosts a bikini contest among other spring break-esque activities. Here, you’d hardly know there was a race going on amidst the flying Mardi Gras beads, blaring music, and endless kegs of beer. Walking clear across the infield lands you in the infamous Green Park area of the track. After hearing rumors of prostitution rings and golf carts being set on fire, I wasn’t sure what I was in for when I crossed the bridge. But things were pleasant enough on the other side, with everything you’d expect to see in an RV camp site. Walk farther in, however, and you start to see some differences. Some fans built huge monoliths of scaffolding on top of their trailers for better race viewing, while others transformed their pickups into open-top, double-decker buses – some appearing less road-worthy than others. The more festive camp sites had creative signs, with one displaying the American Le Mans Series logo made of beer bottle caps and wine corks.It was a different world back in Audi’s pit suite, with flat-screen TVs, an open bar, shrimp scampi, and a perfect view of the front straightaway. With the race telecast playing on one TV, live timing and scoring on the other, and the pits directly outside the window, you were constantly aware of what was happening on track. That is, unless you were busy chatting with a former driver or one of Audi’s other noteworthy guests.
As the race trudged along into the early evening hours, I thought about the level of concentration needed to last a two-hour stint at this punishing track. The day before the race, I drove an Audi A8 TDI for a few parade laps on track. Though we weren’t going fast, you could feel the dramatic elevation changes, harsh bumps, and uneven pavement the track is famous for. Dealing with those conditions while trying to put in a fast lap must be exhausting. At dusk, the cars switched on their headlights for the final portion of the race, and watching the blur of LEDs and yellow-tinted halogens streak past against the fair-like infield backdrop was like nothing else. With an hour to go, I got to suit up and tour Audi Sport Team Joest’s pits. There, you could see the level of concentration was also high among the engineers, who were each tasked with monitoring a different system on the car. Final calculations were being made before the two Le Mans-winning R18 e-tron Quattro racers’ last pit stop, which would decide how much fuel would be put in and whether the cars needed tires. With the Audis’ five-lap lead over the next closest competitor, however, the mood in the pits was very relaxed. The cars came in, and within seconds they were fueled up and back on their way. Audi’s one-two finish was celebrated with a cathartic fireworks display, which served as an appropriate send-off for the German brand. Regulations are changing with the ALMS-Grand Am merger, and there will be no place for Audi’s LMP1-class racers at Sebring next year.The 12 Hours of Sebring has thrilled race fans and party-goers alike for 61 years. While it may not have the royal fanfare of Monaco or the pilgrimage-worthy sanctity of Le Mans, it has a flavor all its own – one that must be experienced first-hand to be fully appreciated.